Arachnophobia
by lilli-hannah
Summary: Charlotte's not very happy when Victor Creed shows up at her office. She's even less happy when his appearance means that her boss sees her crawling up the wall and onto the ceiling. Victor Creed/OC
1. Chapter 1

The scream from the floor below was not the only distraction Charlotte found irritating that day, but it was the event she found most amusing.

"I have to see this," she penned on a note to her colleague, who was still cursing under his breath at having been disturbed in the middle of an important phone conversation, during which he had been about to make one of the most successful deals for the company that year.

The rabbit warren of an office outside was virtually empty, and the few heads that Charlotte could see were bowed, heavily engrossed in whatever work their owners had to do. Proceeding towards the elevator, she caught sneaky glances at the various photographs plastered to the corkboard separating the office cubicles. Some were rather sweet, others not so. Once she was inside the enclosed space, she pressed the button but for the ground floor instead. When the doors refused to close, she sighed, rolled her eyes and aimed a sharp punch at the panel of buttons.

Having taken longer to reach her destination than she had hoped, she sprinted across the lobby and into the room clearly signed 'NO ENTRY.' The rickety stairs were the worst part of her journey and she hated how her footsteps clanged on the grated metal, the spiral downwards too narrow for her own liking. Once she had reached the ground, however, she felt much more comfortable.

"We saw you coming," came a voice from the corner and she grinned as she approached its source. In this basement dwelled the security for the building, and the wall covered in CCTV screens never ceased to be a constant source of amusement.

"I'm glad, would mean you needed to get the electrician in again if not. Is she still freaking out?"

Charlotte slumped into an empty chair next to Arthur, the security guard, and grabbed one of the donuts from a box in front of them.

"She's been freaking out ever since she walked into the building, but the spider's still there if that's what you mean," he replied, munching through his own _Krispy Kreme_. "It's been terrorising her for days. Shame you weren't in yesterday- that was a spectacle to behold."

The scream from the floor below Charlotte had emitted from the company's deputy-manager, Beverly, who had developed arachnophobia over the summer due to a particularly nasty experience with a poisonous spider in Brazil. Every little insect had been at her mercy ever since, and none had lasted long, until the little fellow terrorising her today. This specific spider was huge, at least twice as big as the usual victims, and with much more courage than its predecessors. It had such determination that many of the building's workers had taken to capturing it whenever it appeared purely to keep it safe from Beverly's wrath.

"Shouldn't you be working now?" Arthur grinned, brushing some crumbs from his crumpled uniform and running a hand through his greying hair. His feet rested on the control panel and occasionally he had to stop himself resetting the entire system as his feet slipped when he fell asleep.

"What I should be doing and what I am doing are two completely different things," she replied casually, stretching her arms out in front of her and enjoying the action camera 4 had to offer; Beverly, all manic and flailing arms, was knocking over each item on her desk in an attempt to find the spider that had crawled up the wall on the other side of the room and was presently camouflaged in the shadow of the light-shade.

"Christ, he's a big one," came Arthur's voice from Charlotte's left ear, and she smirked to herself.

"I know, shame she's learnt to throw things, mind…"

"No, not the spider. I mean _him_."

Shaken from her entertainment, Charlotte missed Beverly realising where the spider was and chasing it out of the room with a desk tidy. Instead, her eyes were fixed on screen number 1, which was focused on one angle of the lobby.

A huge example of a man had appeared through the doors, swaggering up to the front desk with a tremendous amount of pride and confidence considering he had never set foot in the building before- if he had, Arthur would have remembered him.

"He's hairier than the average bear," Arthur chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "Some of the raff you get in here is beyond me."

All Charlotte managed was a "hmm…"

There was something not quite right about this man- he didn't seem exactly…human. If anything, he seemed quite…animal. With an uneasy feeling, Charlotte bid goodbye to Arthur and returned up the rickety stairs and out of the door. From where she stood, a little way behind the desk, she saw the strange man smirking and the secretary looking somewhat intimidated. _Poor girl, Charlotte thought. Shame the new ones always get someone scary._

As she stared through the glass panel separating the desk area from where she stood, she thought, for a moment, that as he straightened himself up, the man had looked directly at her. A little shaken, she continued on her way, glancing curiously back at him every so often.

When she reached her office, after, once more, having to fight with the elevator, she sat back in her chair and sighed. Peter had finished his phone call and was now working on a computer spreadsheet, attempting to fill in numbers and letters that looked, to Charlotte, foreign. "She went nuts down there," she told him and Peter looked up, startled, and she wondered how much more excitement he could take- the slightest thing set him off.

"Oh! She was? Oh dear, that won't be good. I've got a meeting with her and the rest of the floor in ten minutes. That's why I'm trying to fill this in. We got the deal though," he beamed proudly, giving himself ten seconds of egocentric pride before returning to the task at hand. The moments rolled by with Charlotte obsessing over the Newton's cradle and Peter clacking away on his keyboard, until he stood and printed off the document.

"Bollocks!" he snapped as his phone rang and he grumbled, thrusting it in Charlotte's direction. "Can you take that? She'll kill me if I'm late again." Without waiting for an answer, he hurried away and Charlotte lifted the phone.

"Hello? Charlotte?"

"Yes? Who's speaking?"

"Oh, I'm Lauren, the new secretary in the lobby. Uhm…there's someone here for you. Is it alright to send him up?" She lowered her voice and Charlotte got the distinct impression that whoever it was was still there. "He's sort of…demanding. He won't leave. I'm not sure what to d-"

"Yes, that's fine. Send him up." The poor girl probably had no idea how to handle important businessmen. "Did he mention his name, by any chance?"

"Uhm…Hold on…"

There was a pause.

"He says his name is Victor Creed."

This time it was Charlotte who fell silent.

"Hello? Charlotte?"

Fuck.


	2. Chapter 2

"Charlotte? Are you there?"

Immediately slamming the phone back down, she glanced in the reflective surface of the metallic clock and saw that she had been drained of almost all colour. In contrast to her dark hair her skin was virtually white and she felt that she looked extraordinarily ill.

She wasn't sure what to do or where to go, but knew that no matter what the receptionist said to Creed he would still be up there in a matter of moments, possibly even quicker. How he had found out about her was a mystery.

"I was so careful…" She told herself, shaking her head and glancing around her for inspiration of somewhere she could go. Without any, she grabbed her cell phone, pocketed it and dashed out of her office and through the cubicles in the next room. It was only when she reached the second to last cubicle that she heard a _ping_ from behind her and turned to see Creed in the mirrored wall opposite the elevator.

Immediately, without thinking, she ducked and crawled quickly into the closest one, using anything reflective around her to try and catch glimpses of where the mutant might be. She remained deathly still and quiet, before realising, all too late, that his primary sense was not sound or sight, but smell.

"Guess who," she heard from above her, and glanced quickly up to see him leaning over the corkboard separating the cubicle she was hiding in from the next. With a reflex speed she never knew existed within her, she had darted under the arm he stretched out to catch her and was pressed against the wall. "This is not the time…" she told herself, seeing the last of the workers leave the office, completely oblivious to the huge animal of a man present. "This is not the time." But Creed, too, was fast, and her body's natural defences won out.

As quickly as she could, she had scuttled up the wall like a spider, her eyes shiny and black. She had reached the top in a matter of seconds, so frightened was she of the man below her, who was calmly watching and not even attempting to make a move.

"Damn," she heard him mutter, but though he was blinking in surprise, his lips were curling into a smirk. "That's pretty creepy, kid."

Victor walked over to the wall and tapped it with his knuckle- Charlotte noticed that he was testing it and, with it being hollow, it wouldn't withstand his weight if he had to be as fast as her. Though she felt a momentary sense of achievement, this was quickly overturned by the obvious fact that this was actually going to be easier for Creed than she had thought. The ceiling may have been high, but he was pretty tall himself and he merely moved until he was stood directly beneath her.

Charlotte panicked and, as she did so, fell into his trap. It had been so long since she had used her powers that her hand slipped and, as she attempted to pull it back up, Creed's fist had enclosed around her wrist. With a swift tug, she was pulled back down to the ground. She heard a crack as her arm twisted and, hoping it hadn't broken, attempted to wrench it from his grip. Unfortunately, her fear had been confirmed and a sharp pain pierced its way through her elbow- it was sprained, in the least.

"You know, they usually make some sort of effort," he told her lazily, taking hold of her other hand when she used it to try and pry him away from her. "But, I suppose that-"

But he was interrupted as a _ping_ alerted both of them to the fact that someone was about to enter and, dragging Charlotte behind him, Creed stood defiantly in the centre of the gap that halved the cubicles in the room. She just about caught the manic grin upon his face and gasped when Arthur, the elderly security guard, emerged from the elevator. The man turned and cocked his gun, aiming it directly at Creed.

"Let her go!" he demanded, though Charlotte could see he was visibly shaking. "Let her go now or I'll shoot. I repeat, I will shoot."

"Oh man," Creed groaned, and rolled his eyes. "Why can't you people be more fun?" And, momentarily letting go of his prey, he launched himself at Arthur. Behind him, his intended effect had been put into motion as Charlotte, about to run for it, was rooted to the spot in horror as Victor began to close his hand around the security guard's neck. He had no need to restrain her, and she felt terribly stupid for it, but was helpless to do anything.

"Stop it!" she screamed at him eventually, but Arthur's punctured artery was only being held together by Victor's claw in the wound and, when she shouted "Let him go!" he laughed. At that point, she realised what she had done and tried to protest and take back what she had said but to no avail.

"As you wish," he grinned, and dropped the man to the floor. As Charlotte watch Arthur take his dying breaths, she felt sick, but her mind kept pointing out to her that she was free from Victor's grasp and she needed to make a run for it. There would be time to grieve for the already dead man later, she told herself, as she darted up the wall once more and across to the left of the room where the door to the stairs was situated.

"Now _that's_ more like it!" she heard Victor shout, as she reached the door and pushed it open. She jumped, balancing on the railing of the stairs and closed her eyes. The core of her hand felt cold, and she knew it had worked, as she caught sight of Victor sprinting towards her from the other side of the room. Immediately, she dropped down the centre of the spiralling staircase, descending from where a web had attached to the metal railing.

He appeared, leaning over the edge and staring down at her, when she was two floors below him and she saw the grin spread across his face.

"Faster…go faster…" she hissed to herself, seeing that she still needed to drop by seven floors to get to the door to the lobby. But, above her, she felt the shudder of the stairway as Victor jumped down a floor from where he was stood, landing on the ledge at the opposite side- he could have jumped the full way, she thought, but he was toying with her, making it a game.

When she saw him reaching out for the string of a web, however, she felt doubtful and even stopped moving. _No…He wouldn't…I'll fall to my death…_ She stared up, wide eyed, as he dragged the web towards him with one hand, making her sway some way below him, and extend one terribly sharp claw on the other.

"Oh dear," he tutted, shaking his head. "I think it's time this place cleaned up their cobwebs- it's terrible in here." The claw was moving ever closer to the web and she was pleading with him not to do anything, attempting to swing herself enough to reach the railings nearest to her.

"Whatever do I do with you?"

"Don't do this…please…I'll come quietly…"

"No, Charlotte, you won't."

"I will! I promise…Just don't drop me…"

"Whatever do you mean? Surely spiders land on their feet…"

She gasped. The claw was touching the web.

"Or is that cats? Ah, the finer details of the phrase always slip my mind, but let's see if I'm right, shall we?"


	3. Chapter 3

"Please don't!"

"Charlotte?"

Both Charlotte and Victor glanced upwards. Standing at the door to the office one floor below Victor and several above Charlotte was Beverly. When Charlotte's eyes snapped back to her predator, she saw him sneak backwards out of Beverly's sight.

"What on earth do you think you're doing?"

"But Beverly, let me explain…"

"This is some ridiculous prank, isn't it? Who are you trying to be- spiderwoman? You know how much I detest spiders!"

"Well that is pretty obvious bu-"

"No buts, Charlotte! I had hoped to give you a promotion for your hard work but I've just decided otherwise," she snapped, unfolding her arms tentatively and glaring down at Charlotte. "What is this, anyway?" she asked, reaching out and plucking at the web, but did not wait for an answer. Retracting her hand and grimacing, she muttered about the stickiness on the railings and returned into the doorway she had appeared from.

This was her chance- she could drop now and run, run whilst he was still backed against the metal plating on the walls. But she could not. She was in absolute and utter shock. She had worked as though her life depended on it to achieve that promotion, the promotion that had been so close…

Never before had she revealed her true identity- it had been concealed under her mask of normality. She had never drawn attention to herself, never been too outrageous. _I was so careful…_she whispered to herself, shaking her head, before she looked up to see him advancing, slowly, a predatory step by step, until he reached where he had been.

"Tsk tsk tsk…This is no time for jokes, really, is it, Charlotte? Are you always such a prankster?" he mocked, hopping up to crouch on the railings that shifted slightly under his weight. As before, he touched the web and trailed a claw across is lightly. "I always wondered if these things were really as strong as steel…"

"And you're not going to find out," she snapped, releasing the web and closing her eyes tightly as she dropped the rest of the way. For a moment, she thought her legs would be crushed, but she handed and bent her knees beneath her. They buckled and she slipped but steadied herself by grabbing a nearby door handle. Without even daring to look up, she slipped through the door and ran. Just ran.

She wasn't quite sure where she was- this was the room behind the lobby, she recognised after a moment, though she had only ever been in here on her first day. So preoccupied with her thoughts, she found out only too late that she hadn't been watching where she was going and collided with another body. She could tell it was another person because all that was stored in that particular room were items on metal shelving, and she was quite sure that metal didn't feel so soft.

"Oh shi-" she began, thinking that Victor had somehow overtaken her, but she looked up to see that, having fallen on the floor, the man standing above her was not her hunter at all. Instead, it was the man she had found herself head over heels with ever since she had started work at the office. Except, this time, it was quite literal. Still, he did not look unimpressed and smiled, offering a hand to help her up.

_This could be the moment_, she thought, completely oblivious to the fact that Victor was still on the prowl and could rip either of their throats out in a second. _This could be the moment that sparks off a rel-_

"Charlotte," came a voice from behind her, and she saw her crush glancing up at the source with a mix of amazement and worry. "Is everything alright?"

The attempted normality in his tone made her shudder and she felt herself being dragged to her feet. Yes, of course, Victor was playing her. He wasn't going to kill and run- he'd toy with his food. How immature.

"Oh, you two know each other?"

She went to open her mouth but was dragged to Victor's side as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and nudged a claw into her shoulder as a silent warning.

"She's my mat- my girlfriend," Creed replied, almost unable to say the word. It didn't sound right coming from him, she thought, and she could tell that his intended effect wasn't exactly convincing. "And we have to go now, I'm afraid."

With that, she attempted to turn and reach out for something to hold onto, but he kept her close and walked her out of the door and into the stairwell. Wasting no time in intimidating her, he took her shoulders and forced her back against the wall, smirking down at her with a half-amused, half-baffled expression. "I never understand why any of you attempt to run, you know…Surely you must know we'll find you eventually?"

Without saying a word, she spat directly on the floor and glared up at him, warning him to back off. Needless to say, she knew it would not work before she'd done it, and she was right. With a mocking laugh, he lowered his head towards her, grabbing one side of hers with a clawed hand and dragging it sideways to expose her neck.

"Cats eat spiders, you know. Very useful to have around."


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry for the serious lack of postage on this story folks- it's unfortunate, but I've been on holiday and preparing for that big, huge, massive move to University! Don't worry, I'll still be writing, but for now this will have to suffice- I'll try and get another chapter in before I go, which is in three weeks, but if not then expect something from my 'writing-cures-homesickness' attempts!

For a moment, there was silence, then Charlotte shook her head and sighed.

"No…nothing…I can't think of a comeback," she admitted, glancing at him and raising an eyebrow. "You'll just have to eat me quietly."

Victor blinked, the moment ruined, as he pulled back; his hand remained clutching the side of her head and his other immediately flew to her throat to keep her pinned against the wall. He was torn between surprise (usually they cowered or at least attempted to fight, or be clever, or…or…something) and amusement.

"Man…I was hoping you'd be a bit of fun…Not that it matters," he mumbled, more to himself than to her. He felt his determination leaving him and boredom seeping into his system. He'd not had a good game of cat and mouse- or cat and spider, as this had turned out to be- for a long, long time.

In fact, he'd been hoping she'd escape, so that this could go on for longer. He had a feeling that his next conquest, whatever and wherever it may be, would not be as fun.

"Well, I'm afraid it's no use…" came a voice from the wall and he frowned up at her, tightening his grip on her throat.

"You want me to do this? You want me to kill you? I could do it you know…" he warned her, his tone menacing, a flicker of a smirk playing on his lips as he improvised. One way or another, he would have his fun. "I could claw away at that pretty little head of yours…you wouldn't be killed, mind…Mutilated, of course…"

"Aren't we already a little mutilated, you know, what with being, well, mutated? That already feels like somebody's ripped me limb from limb, though perhaps you're quite alright with it…" she shrugged, retaining a cool gaze as she stared at him.

"WHAT THE F**K IS WRONG WITH YOU?" he snapped, finally losing his cool and punching a fist clean through the wall next to her. The debris and dust settled in her hair and on her clothing; she tried to shake it off, away from her eyes, as she coughed and spluttered, but he held fast. "You think you're funny, kid? Do you? Think you can outsmart me, yeah? Well I've got news for you…"

He raised the fist to her shoulder, dug his claws in and dragged, downwards, shredding the right sleeve of her shirt. She felt the deep marks appear on her skin before she saw them and immediately shut her mouth.

"I can't be bothered with this game any more, the cat has won and you're fresh meat to me, kid," he hissed, intimidating and close to her dust-speckled cheek. He lapped once at the flesh, smirking as he smelt the anger welling up in her…Three…Two…One…

She wriggled and attempted to form a web to escape, but in the struggle Victor found himself able to wind it around her wrists, keeping her held tightly. "Strong as steel that stuff, right?" he laughed, lifting her into his arms and peering through the hole he had made in the wall.

"Nice day outside," he sneered at her, indicating to the dim alleyway that he had broken through to. "This is going to hurt….you, that is."

Keeping her held intensely close to him, he raised his fist once more and punched a second hole through the wall, a short way below the first, this time watching as the cracks splitting the wall met. Part of the wall crumbled away before their eyes and he stepped out into the outside air.

"They don't make these like they used to…Easy to get through, that is. One time all I had to do was kick down planks of wood…Concrete has made things much more interesting."

For a moment, Charlotte, dazed and confused, wondered what the hell he was going on about "planks of wood" and all of that, but feeling the blood trickling down her cheek was the last thing she recalled before she blacked out attempting to blink the dust from her eyes.


End file.
